Erik
We’re back at the hotel, and I’ve booked us a private tasting at the Sazerac House.
Remy likes this kind of thing. Structure. Ritual. Right now, he isn’t himself.
He’s talked about his Tianna on and off for years. Never obsessively. Never in a way that asked for pity. But when he drinks, when his guard slips, he always wonders what happened to her.
She mattered to him.
Finding her again after all this time, and realizing she didn’t have the life a child like that should have had…
That kind of fracture doesn’t heal cleanly.
It’s the sort of tragedy that writes operas.
Chapter forty-one
Christianna
I prop my head on my fist as we sit at our table.
“I visited her today,” I whisper.
Meg stills. I never talk about her.
“I think I haven’t honored her by hiding her. I’m not ashamed of her.”
Meg shakes her head. “I never thought you were. Just heartbroken over the loss.”
“Yeah. I thought about how I could give her everything I couldn’t, and in the end…” My breath hitches. “I wasn’t even able to give her life.”
Meg says nothing, which I appreciate. There isn’t anything she could say.
“I need to live again,” I whisper. “Today was my first step.”
“It was good to see my friend again,” Meg says softly. “I’ve missed her.”
We exchange a smile.
“So catch me up on you.”
Meg rolls her eyes. “Not much to tell. I dated a few losers. Had ACL reconstruction.” Her smile turns wry. “So once again, Madame Geroux was right about having a fallback for ballet.”
I scoff. “Has she ever been wrong? Honestly, as much as her oversight drove me insane, she never steered me badly.” I pause, then grin. “Your mother is… I don’t think they’ve invented a word strong enough for her yet.”
“They truly haven’t. You should come over and visit. She misses you.”
“I will, once I find a place to live.”
“There are apartments at the opera house. I’m sure Remy wouldn’t mind. He still has us at the hotel.”
I’m already shaking my head. “No. I spend enough time there, and I will never not treasure my alone time. I think I’m going to look for a small place to buy. It’s time I put down roots.”
“Want to go look after rehearsal tomorrow? I love looking at real estate and imagining what I’d do if I lived there.”
“Sure. I sometimes lack that kind of vision. It’s why I was content in my apartment for so long.”
Meg has already pulled out her phone, opening an app.
